FEATURED

Braille has been working hard on his upcoming album "Cloud Nineteen." Braille shares his plans in his last newsletter:

I only have two songs to finish and the "Cloud Nineteen" album will be completely finished. This is my collaborative record with S1 of Strange Fruit Project. We are planning for a March 3rd release date in 2009 and we have decided to drop this record on our own. At first, I was intimidated by this idea but then a fire started to grow in my heart. I've been thinking a lot about the younger generation.

One of my frustrations sometimes is that I don't have the marketing budget behind my music to promote to the younger generation. It's hard to compete with McDonalds, G-Unit, X-Box and MTV. In the past I've had some opportunities to visit youth prisons, after school programs and boys homes. These experiences have always been meaningful to me but now I feel like it's time for me to specifically start focusing on the youth. Sometimes when I'm touring I only have 60 CDS on hand in my vehicle. Anyone who has ever been to one of my concerts knows that I always do my best to be gracious and give away my music to people who can't afford it. I remember times where kids would crowd around me wanting CDs - most of them legitimately didn't have ANY money. I was usually only able to give out 3 or 4 copies and I felt terrible. For an artist to visit these places where kids are, spend time with them and bring them a gift is a huge deal.

In 2009 me and S1 are setting a goal to give away 30,000 copies of our new CD to teenagers in youth prisons, boys homes and after school programs. To the best of our ability, we plan on delivery these CDs to each facility in person. Our hope is to set up sessions with the kids, give them the free CDs, do a free performance and also do some music education. We are working on a partnership so that these 30,000 CDs will come with a BONUS DISK including free music software and tutorial videos teaching youth about music production and song writing. The project is much more in depth, but I just wanted to share the basic outline with everyone.

In January we are going to be doing art auctions and fund raising to help cover the costs of manufacturing. If your interested in helping us with this in anyway then please just send me a message back. S1 and myself will start touring together Feb. 25th! We are setting up our schedule so that we can visit youth facilities during the day and then do all ages concerts during the evening.